Stewart vs. Cramer on The Daily Show

Okay, sorry for all the financial stuff lately, but goodness gracious, this interview on The Daily Show is worth acknowledging. Jon Stewart recently had Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money on his show to talk to him about all the "bad reporting" CNBC had done on the financial system before all the bankruptcies and bailouts. It brought me back for a moment to the time Jon Stewart came on to MSNBC's Crossfire, basically in the Trojan Horse of being "that funny guy" and very seriously and mercilessly picked them apart and detroyed the show. The only difference is this time everybody knew exactly what was going to happen - and I can only assume Cramer knew as well - he was humiliated.

The whole thing was just so uncomfortable, soaked in the kind of tension most of us spend our whole lives trying to avoid - the kind of tension that has given rise to entire social contructs that serve the sole purpose of avoiding that tension. And yet there it was as clear as day: pure, unadulterated law and judgment.

So here's how it went down: After a solid week of Stewart basically (and sometimes literally) saying "F you" in clever ways to Jim Cramer on his show, he actually managed to get Cramer to come on the show! Cramer admirably began the interview by admitting, "We all should have seen it...I got a lot of things wrong." To which Stewart replied, "So then...why were you mad at us? Because I was under the impression you thought we were being unfair?" Hmmm.

Of course Stewart knew the answer: Because no one likes to be criticized, ESPECIALLY not when the criticism points out truly bad things about them! That's when it sucks the most actually. Stewart then showed an ad for Cramer's CNBC show with the catch phrase, "In Cramer We Trust" and then followed it up with clip after clip exposing Cramer's own involvement in some very morally questionable trading tactics, ultimately exposing him as a liar and a hypocrite. At first he tried to make excuses, but the clips got worse and worse. One of the clips from his past awkwardly ended with him saying, "I'm not going to say that on TV." The live studio audience broke out in laughter at the irony of the situation, and all Cramer could do was sit there and say, "Well now it's on TV." Holy Moses. And that was only the first 10 minutes. Honestly it keot getting worse. Stewart was relentless, and yet, the circumstances seemed very clearly to justify his harshness.

Now, to me, Cramer was far more humble than most human beings. At times in the interview I admired the man. Don't get me wrong; he wasn't actually humble. He defended himself on and off for most of the interview, but also apologized quite a bit. He even said, "You're absolutely right," one time. That was really refreshing. But Stewart didn't let up AT ALL. It was so hard to watch.

The one thing I couldn't help but think the whole time was how beautiful and utterly strange it would have been if Cramer had simply said, "You're absolutely right. I'm sorry," and left it at that, with no defense, no arguments, just that. It was clear he didn't have a chance anyway, and the more he tried to fight it and to justify himself, the more he got hammered and humiliated.

And like I said, to me he seemed unusually repentant (though again it was nowhere close to pure). But I couldn't have expected any more from someone in his position, and if it were me, I would have fought much harder than he did! And that brings me to the main point I wanted to make: Sincere apologies are just so freaking hard to come by. To be left with nothing except, "You're absolutely right. I'm sorry," in the face of utterly relentless criticism and condemnation is a terrifying prospect. Everyone avoids it. And yet it is perhaps the ONLY human experience that actually makes sense of Christianity, precisely because it is the only experience that makes sense of the cross.

So here's to the relentless law! (Rom. 7:7) Without it we'd never taste the sweetness of grace.